


Duty

by whizzle



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotions, Friendship, Happy Ending, M/M, POV Uchiha Sasuke, Protective Uchiha Sasuke, Reminiscing, Romantic Friendship, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, Uchiha Sasuke-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25661281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whizzle/pseuds/whizzle
Summary: Sasuke's life was always driven by duty - whether it be for his clan, himself or the person closest to him. It was duty that caused him to leave, and duty that brought him back to the one he belongs. Naruto/Sasuke, NaruSasu [Complete]
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 4
Kudos: 53





	1. Duty - Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Two part short story from Sasuke’s perspective.

Sasuke does not remember much of his own beginnings, or any time without the constant need to move forward with a purpose. There was a time in his childhood where he felt truly free and at peace, unhindered by expectations, and dared to have naïve dreams of making a name for himself. That time now felt like another person's life.

It was no secret that the Uchiha clan were held to a higher standard than the other residents within the village. Back then there was an unspoken duty amongst the clan to be the best representation of shinobi ideals and values – on the surface for their role as law enforcement, but controversially and lesser known as atonement for their dark history against the village.

None of this had bothered Sasuke. His parents engaged the role of ideal citizens, his brother a prodigy and countless other Uchiha too willing to uphold the system that both elevated and imprisoned them. It was under this same system where Sasuke remembers happiness and the feeling of belonging.

All of it shattered when Itachi broke the rules, and suddenly the weight of generations fell onto Sasuke alone. The lives his people were leading, their histories and their legacy became his own. And from this duty birthed another shinobi named Sasuke Uchiha, and a new emotion his brother liked to call _hatred_.

* * *

His first meeting with Naruto occurred in the rain, on his way back from the academy to what remained of the Uchiha compound. Rain was when his hatred burned hottest. It had rained the night of his family's slaughter.

Sasuke remembers walking, drenched from the downpour. He didn't even notice when the rain had stopped falling on him as a shadow of an umbrella rose above his head. "You look like you needed help" said the blonde boy who now stood beside him with a grin on his face, who wore ragged looking clothes and an attitude that wanted attention. Sasuke may have seen him briefly at the academy but he will never know for sure. The boy extended his hand.

For a moment the fire that was his hatred dampened, if only slightly. And in that slight moment, Sasuke found himself suddenly forgetting thoughts of revenge, of killing, of upholding his clan's legacy. In that moment he saw a new future - of a potential friendship with the boy and a path out of his loneliness. But just in that instant he considered this, the next instant he remembered his duty as an Uchiha, a duty that rejected distractions like friendship.

"I didn't," Sasuke replied abruptly and walked on, not knowing whether the boy followed.

It was the day after when Sasuke learned the name Naruto and quickly came to associate that name with feelings of confusion, annoyance and sometimes begrudging admiration.

* * *

Sasuke remembers his time with Naruto on team 7 better than any time in his life. His will for revenge had not faltered over the years and his fire burned hotter than ever, or so he told himself. During that time Naruto never gave up his chase, always moving forward with a drive that Sasuke did not understand. Sasuke had become desensitized to the superficial attention that the girls in his academy craved, but he could sense that there was something deeper than Naruto wanted from him. Some acknowledgement, some shared experience, or a shared understanding of something. Maybe Naruto could see through to Sasuke's untended desire for the companionship he lost when his clan died.

Maybe that was why Sasuke found himself running toward Naruto that day, shielding him as Haku's thousand senbon needles flew forward and pierced his skin, everything forgotten from his mind except the urge to protect. It was only in the stinging pain that followed when Sasuke remembered he had a duty to his clan to live. Death was a thought that crossed his mind then, but it was the blue eyes that looked down at him full of hurt that willed him to keep on living.

And so he did.

* * *

It was fear that drove Sasuke to leave the village. Fear when he found himself enjoying life with his team, and forgetting the burden of his clan. Fear when he started to realize what Naruto had meant to him – a reason to be alive, different to the one burned into his head. " _You are alive because I willed it so"_ , he remembers his brother saying. But why then did it no longer feel this way?

Itachi's return served as a painful reminder of what Naruto's existence had made Sasuke forget. And Sasuke remembered, clear as ever, his duty for vengeance. He let the curse consume him, transform him, hoping that it would wipe the all traces of Naruto from his mind.

But even as he tried, Naruto would not let him. The fists that pummelled his body that day he left roared in anguish, as if Naruto was crying out to him. Begging him. And as Sasuke stared down at Naruto's unmoving body, rain washing both their wounds, he closed his eyes and allowed himself the visions he dared not dwell on prior. In quick flashes he saw themselves becoming chuunin together, then jounin, training together, hanging out, leading their own teams. He saw himself taking Naruto to a round of ramen after a mission. He saw himself as the right hand at Naruto's hokage ceremony, the silent protector. _So easy_ , Sasuke had thought then. It would be so easy to abandon his duty and go back with Naruto. Too easy to forget his desire for revenge.

Sasuke could not allow himself, and so he left.


	2. Duty - Part 2

Two years of life felt dull and dream-like, as if Sasuke was wearing another skin, yielding another mind. Was it the dry monotony of acquiring power day by day? Or the looming, inevitable end of losing his body to Orochimaru? 

Two years and Sasuke now felt like a different being. So much and so little about him has changed. Orochimaru may not have him yet, but Sasuke no longer recognized his own body. 

At night he dreamed of another time. Another life with people who cared about him and with a person so close to him, with whom he could share all of himself. By day, Kabuto would inject a dozen different medicines into his arm, and his new life would begin. A life of endless fighting, trapped in a cage with a power that consumed him every passing day. 

All this power, yet it never felt enough. Two years, it went on like a never-ending cycle. Will he triumph or will he end up like one of those failed experiments, caged and dissolving to nothing? 

Sasuke remembers being woken from his stupor one day by intruders from Konoha that he did not recognize. He remembers looking down at them – yes names from another life, who had no place in his new one. They will all be consumed by hatred, he had decided. But from one body came a voice, so familiar, yelling at him silently. Take control of your body the voice said. 

And for the first time Sasuke's body reignited with...something. A spark. Naruto Uzumaki, he remembered. This person was more than just a name to him. 

Two years felt a long time, but not enough time to forget him. 

* * *

The encounter with Naruto awakened him with purpose. And with purpose came renewed vigour to fulfill his duty to the Uchiha. He will defeat Itachi on his own terms, not anyone else’s – not even Orochimaru’s. 

And so Sasuke decided there was nothing left to be gained by staying, willingly manipulated and eventually consumed by Orochimaru. At the end of the road, no matter how long his journey would take, if by some miracle that he still be standing, perhaps there _is_ someone willing to greet him. Someone he can return to without condition or guilt. 

There was no more strength to be acquired by being drugged, coddled and pitted against failed experiments, weakened from their cages in organized fights. It was time to fight with his life on the line, with opponents who will show him no mercy. Orochimaru, weakened and sickly, posed little threat to him this time. 

When the time comes to face Itachi, it will be life and death. 

* * *

Two of them walked into the abandoned temple that day, and only one left – as he had always envisioned. The wrong one left, Sasuke thought, and still thinks to this day. 

_You are alive because I willed it so_ , Itachi had said to him, and it rang true now more than ever. As Sasuke thought about all the memories he so deeply buried, all the small doubts that bugged him but he brushed aside, and everything that Tobi had told him, he wondered if he was ever in control of his life. 

Itachi was gone, suffering in death as he had lived. The deep hatred within Sasuke, unsated by his death now looked ever eager for a new target. What comes after? And after that? There was no time to think, only time to move forward. Perhaps it was because he didn’t want to think about it, because thinking meant acknowledging what he did. Thinking meant guilt, and guilt will only slow him down. 

Like a puppet bound by his master, duty to his brother’s memory pulled Sasuke to a place called Konoha. 

After Danzo fell, Sasuke felt an empty shell again. Hatred was a volatile fuel and when it did not burn, other feelings brushed Sasuke’s mind. The never-ending guilt. Regret. Another memory of a distant life on the path he willingly forfeit. Konoha. Was there some part of him still, deep down, that yearned for that life? 

In Konoha there was someone who still loved him, that much he knew. But there was nothing to be gained there now, for Sasuke had nothing but hate to give. 

* * *

Sasuke had never been great at reunions, but this one differed from the others. For once he had an encounter that brought him peace instead of turmoil. 

Itachi was there in all but flesh. Itachi spoke to him as an equal. Most of all, Itachi - his brother – fought beside him as a shinobi in a war. It meant more to Sasuke than he could ever express, that he could experience even for a brief moment the feeling of fighting beside his brother. 

As Itachi bid him farewell, for once Sasuke wished that things had been different. For once he understood the Will of Fire. If only his clan did not give cause to rebel. If only Itachi weren’t so selfless to hold that burden of peace onto himself. Sasuke would be back in the village, with a brother who would mentor him for life, with his closest friend who will never leave him. 

These were bygones – what mattered is what happens next. The road forward was not clear - for once he had a choice. 

The spirit of Itachi dissolved to dust, and Sasuke’s hatred with it. Peace – was that the answer? Was it now his duty to bring peace, just as his brother wanted? 

* * *

The ancestors of Konoha provided their own guidance – optimistic but nevertheless, well-intended and empathetic guidance. Sasuke listened, and made his choice. 

To this day, Sasuke did not know whether it was the right choice, but his decision lead to his reunion with Naruto and perhaps that is all that mattered. Was it the mistakes he made that brought them back together, or was it Naruto’s unending drive to seek him? If he had made other choices, would those have lead to his death instead? Sasuke cannot tell what came on roads not taken, so he prefers not to dwell. 

When Naruto exchanged fists with him that one final time at the valley, Sasuke allowed himself his tears. Maybe there were other emotions too, but all he remembers was relief. Relief that he wasn’t alone and that someone understood him. Relief as he allowed himself to accept what he had always desired – a person who he can love freely and without guilt. A person who returned his feelings unconditionally. 

The question of how he might atone for all the death and destruction he caused came to his thoughts more often than not, especially on his journey of self-reflection. Naruto was quick to forgive, but the shinobi world was not. Sasuke would carry that responsibility for the rest of his life. 

His daughter would continue the Uchiha bloodline – and that was his final gift to his ancestors. Sasuke wondered if it was cruel to place the burden of his child on someone whose feelings he respected but did not return, but all his doubts vanished when he witnessed the deep admiration Sarada had for Naruto. There was no doubt she inherited the Will of Fire and with it, free from the curse of hatred. As would the Uchiha after her. At the very least there was hope for the future. 

The future brought uncertainties but Sasuke had never been afraid of the time that may come. 

The time is now and he is where he was destined to be. Beside the one dearest to him, protecting his vision, supporting him with all his strength – for that is his duty. 


End file.
